Do you look at the trees at all? Have you noticed how trees in the distance always look like pine forests, but trees close up always  look like this:

I have been in to the woods, at least far enough to see the bare branches, and the leaf litter. At times there are leaves, but my sense of time is not good.

I have walked for what seemed like days to try and reach the pine forests that haunt this island. Always they seem to be on the next hill, the next headland. I see their dark greens, their mighty canopies, and yet I can never reach them. Up close I find only these stark and often lifeless trees, and I do not know why.

Where are these unreachable forests? Do they only exist in my mind, or are they somehow out there, beyond my grasp? I dream of the sharp scent of pine resin, and the soft footing of needles beneath my feet.

Is it that I am cursed? Do others wander into those distant pine woods whenever the fancy takes them? Am I alone excluded from their shade? What have I done to so offend them? I know not.

When I die, please bury me in a pine coffin. I am homesick for the trees of my childhood, and afraid that this is the only means by which I might yet reach them.

(Photo by Keith, text by Nimue – which will make sense if you’ve ever looked closely at the trees in the graphic novels.)